"If Turkey, governed by the AKP, became a full EU-member, it would not only be a burden, but also a handicap for the integration of Turks in Europe as European citizens."

(Bassam Tibi, "Mit dem Kopftuch nach Europa?", p. 83)

Bassam Tibi is a political scientist of Syrian origin born in 1944. He taught at universities worldwide, including the University of Gottingen and Cornell, and published a number of books on Islam, Turkey and integration.

One of his most recent contributions to the German debate on Turkey is a book published in 2005: "Mit dem Kopftuch nach Europa?" ("With the headscarf to Europe?") There he argues that the Muslim headscarf is the symbol of an Islamic political orientation, which is gaining ground both in Turkey and among Turkish migrants in Germany.

Interview with Bassam Tibi in Spiegel Online, Europeans Have Stopped Defending Their Values, 10 Febraury 2006. Tibi writes about the weakness of Europe: "Europeans have stopped defending the values of their civilization. They confuse tolerance with relativism."